GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

[waft]

I recently purchased a new build that I set up myself. The specs are
Intel Core i7 920
Gigabyte EX58-DS4 motherboard
2x2gb Dual Channel OCZ memory
Nvidia GTX260
750w PSU
After setting it all up I turned it on but nothing happened. Power was going to the motherboard but it would not POST, there were no beeps and nothing came up on screen. After requesting an RMA from the supplier I was sent a replacement motherboard. The same thing happened even though I was assured this new board had been tested and was working correctly. I took my system in to a computer shop who tested the components seperately, and found they all worked apart from the motherboard (note: they didnt have another core i7 processor to use so they tested my motherboard with my processor still in, however the processor worked when it was tested with a different motherboard). I could only deduce from this that I was sent two faulty motherboards so I ordered a new one from a different supplier, the Gigabyte EX58-UD3R. However, low and behold, upon installation I was having the same problem again. arghhh! Any feedback on this would be much appreciated, since everyone I have rung about it have been unable to help. I have heard that it could be a problem with the version on the BIOS I am running, and Gigabyte's website reccommend updation it, however how can I do this if i cant even get to the BIOS?
I'm really sorry about the long post but am getting very annoyed with this and have spent a lot of money on a set up that doesn't even work. Thanks in advance for any help

[NimrodAUS]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

What Model of power supple do you have? Please give all the detail you can of what happens when you press your power button. Are you using an 8 pin CPU power plug or 4? have you tried with 1 stick of ram? Do you have another Graphics card to try.
I would not be inclined to believe anything any computer shop says as they are all so farking dumb its not funny. Do your case fans spin and LEDS light up or something when you turn it on? Does your HDD Spin up?

[waft]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

Hi Nimrod,

The power supply I am using is a 750w SILENCER. I can describe exactly what happens when i press the on switch: the LED's on the motherboard light up; the case fans and the CPU fan all start spinning; the hard drive spins up; then nothing, no POST and nothing shows up on screen.

The CPU power plug is four pin, and I have tried using just one stick of memory to boot up but still the same problem. With regards to having a spare graphics card to use, I don't , but the one I am using has been tested in another system and works perfectly, as has the processor, the PSU and the memory (each one individually). Only the motherboard wasn't tested but by process of elimination it only leaves this that could really be the problem, although to have three seperate MOBO's all fail (all Gigabyte MOBO's as well) is extremely unlikely.

Cheers for any help you can give, this is all really starting to become a real annoyance for me now, everyone I have spoken to have said they've never heard of something like this happening before.

[SnorkleZ]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

Hi waft,

Don't give up yet! I had a somewhat similar experience when I got my ex-58-EXTREME. The lights and boot behavior on mine are different from your ex58-DS4, but the behavior should be similar.

First, my system wouldn't boot at all. It turned out my 550 watt Antec power suppy couldn't handle the load. I discovered that this was the problem by swapping my EVGA 9800Gt graphic card for a really cheap (low-power) graphics card. In that configuration it started to boot.

Next, my system's boot behavior had me thinking something was wrong, because I woud turn it on and it would seem to boot, and then shut back off after a few seconds, leading me to think something was overloading and shutting down for safety. It took me a while to realise that I was panicking, and should let it continue to boot. So - it is normal for it to seem to power-up, then shut off for a few seconds, and then continue booting. So be sure to let it continue booting long enough.

You have tested (or replaced) each system component individually, so the combination of parts must not play together. For instance your power supply might test fine in other systems, but be inadequate in your system. (I know - it *ought* to be enough...) But just for fun, do try a small cheap low-power video card in your system (I borrowed one for this test). And make sure the ram sticks are in the proper sockets!

Good luck! Please let us know what the problem turns out to be.

[waft]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

Hey SnorkleZ,

Thanks for all the advice, you're one of the first people I've found who's had a similar sort of experience with the Gigabyte EX58 motherboard series. I am running my system with a 750w SILENCER PSU which should be powerful enough. Unfortunately I don't have access to a low-power card so I cant really swap it around, however my graphics card was tested on a different motherboard and it worked with my PSU. A different PSU was used to try and run my system but it still did not work.

With regards to my systems boot behaviour, when I power it up all the LED's on the MOBO come on, the fans start spinning and the hard drive starts up then that's it. Nothing more happens, no POST or display on screen, and I have left it for several minutes in this state to rule out the possibility of an extremely slow bootup sequence. I must admit I have never seen a problem where the system boots up, powers itself off, then continues to boot up again, that is quite strange in my opinion.

The dealer I bought it all from seems to think that the problem lies with the fact that I am using dual channel memory as opposed to triple channel, so I am sending the motherboard, CPU and memory all back for testing. Hopefully they will be able to resolve this because I have had this problem for almost a month now and it's really starting to annoy me.

Thanks again for your post, I shall let you know how everything went with the testing as and when I find out.

[Nickel020]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

The RAM might not like the Gigabyte X58 boards, RAM incompatability is pretty common. Did you try different RAM on your board in the shop?

[NimrodAUS]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

Take all ram out, Make sure you have you Case speaker plugged in properly and if there is no beeps your MB is stuffed Id say. Also try this with no graphics card in. MAke sure your speaker is plugged in the right way and all.

[NimrodAUS]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

As I said rip out everything and it should beep at you weather its long continuous or a sequence of beeps with no ram or video car in it should beep something. If it doesnt make dead sure u have ur speaker hooked up right if still nothing, Get a new board. I just cant believe that its 3 dead boards. thats really not good. I had heaps of dramas with my new system I sent the board back got a new one same problems. It all turned out to be a bad 5volt rail in my Gigabyte ODIN GT 800Watt PSU. Works sometimes but very tempermental. So Who knows. its very Annoying I know to have all this new beaut stuff and cant use it.

[SnorkleZ]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

Hmm. I too find it hard to believe in three bad motherboards. The suggestion to yank out all of the ram and also the video card at the same time .is a good one to try next. My Antec case doesn't come with a case speaker, but the POST code LED on my board served as a substitute. If the DS4 board you've got doesn't have the LED then you've got to have a case speaker. Not having one on the motherboad is a pain.

Like NimrodAUS I also had "heaps of dramas" with my new board. I like that phrase. Buying the latest tech is often an adventure. And the change from the frontside bus to QPI is a major one. Now that the i7 boards have been out a month or so things are a little easier, what with bios updates fixing some things.

My boot sequence isn't as strange as I said - it is just the cpu fan which cuts on then off then on when booting. Still disconcerting.

[waft]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

Take all ram out, Make sure you have you Case speaker plugged in properly and if there is no beeps your MB is stuffed Id say. Also try this with no graphics card in. MAke sure your speaker is plugged in the right way and all.

I just found out yesterday that my case doesn't actually have a speaker so I've been listening out for beeps that would never have been there all this time :( I had already tried booting upwith only the motherboard and processor installed, trying to listen for beeps, but only now I realise there never would have been beeps anyway.

@SnorkleZ: I had LED's on my motherboard which did light up every time I powered on, but I'm not sure if they are POST LED's like you describe or not. The thing is they light up every time I switch on regardless of the components that are installed, which would indicate that it is POSTing properly every time if they were POST LED's. This still leaves the problem that there is nothing showing up on screen when I connect it all up. (the graphics card definitely works as it has been tested with a different motherboard).

Anyway, I can't really try out any more solutions at the time being since I have just sent the motherboard, CPU and memory all back to the dealer I got it from for testing. If they can't get to the bottom of it then I think I'll have to return it all and either buy a completely different setup (not something I want to do, really love the thought of having the i7) or buy all the same parts from a diferent outlet and hope it was just a one-off problem.

Thanks for all the help you guys have given, its been much appreeciated, will keep you updated as to goings on as I find out. Cheerz.

P.S. Ignore the "thumbs up" at the top of the post, it doesn't signify my problems are solved or anything, I managed to add it randomly without thinking, sorry.

[tnzz]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

My guess is that the cpu might be the problem. If you don't get any response when you apply power as you described, it indicates to me that cpu is not executing any instructions.

You have dertermined that the CPU works on another system so maybe try to remove the cpu, check the pins on the board and chip for anything unusual.

Also, I think the board has a buzzer so you won't need a speaker to hear the beeps when booting. I hear a feint buzz on mine. Edit: Oops, sorry I didn't read the part where you sent it back already.

[Azraehl]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

I'm highjacking this thread a bit as I have the excact same problem. My setup is almost identical to yours

GA-EX-DS4
Gigabyte GTX260
Corsair TWIN3X 1333MHz DDR3, 6GB, 1.5v (3x2)
intel i7 920
750W PSU with 8pin CPU connector

I've reset CMOS several times as that is the typical problem with new MB not booting or giving any beeps.

I've reset by removing the battery, jumper and the cmos reset switch.

I've tried to boot without RAM installed, my cpu is working, I've tried with 8800gts and 7950gt graphics cards and my harddrives are working.

Only differense I ever see, is when I reset by removing the battery. when I do that, the computer flashes and reboots two times before it is back to the no boot state.

I'm all out of ideas. I know this MB has problems booting with the i7 920 cpu, but I's not possible to upgrade to BIOS 4 as long as it doesen't give input to the monitor...

Do I just return this MB to the dealer and change to a different manufacturer?

[Azraehl]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

Possible solution:

The RAM is inserted in the wrong slots.

Unlike every other setup I've assembled and unlike every computer I open up at work (I'm a retail computer techie) the RAM should be inserted in the RIGHT slots in each pair

2-1 4-3 6-5

Ram in slots 1,3 and 5 for triple channel
Ram in slots 1 and 3 for dual channel
Ram in slots 1 or 3 for single channel.

I feel like a noob for not figuring out this sooner, but after reseting my mind and think back to basic I read through the whole user manual and discovered the RAM slot settings on an image.

As your problem is almost identical to mine, I figure you have done the same mistake. It even seems more so as one of your MBs were testet ok at the retailer.

[NimrodAUS]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

Sounds like a simple error. Could happen to anyone.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-EX58-DS4 won't boot

So is this sorted out now? Ya, I agree they have the slots funky for Triple for sure.

One would think Triple should start with the first slot, not the second (Labeled 1)